I hope you all have had a nice holiday!Here at Freesound we love diversity! - diversity of sounds, of users and of ideas.With the 2012 Paralympics taking place in London right now, celebrating DIVERSITY seems like a good choice of theme.

The idea of this month's dare is very simple:- You can use any samples uploaded to Freesound up to 3rd Sep 2012.- You will celebrate diversity by choosing samples in pairs. Each pair will contain opposites (quiet/loud, mono/stereo, day/night, etc).- Obviously both samples from each pair must be used in your composition. More than one pair can have the same opposites (e.g., quiet/loud, but all samples must be paired. Meaning if you choose 2 loud samples... you must also pick 2 quiet ones).- You can apply processing, as long as you don't destroy the 'meaning' of that sample... So, if a sample was chosen on the basis of being 'quiet', you will have to keep it at low volume in your composition. If a sample was chosen on the basis of being 'clean' you cannot apply distortion to it. etc.- compositions need to be between 2 and 4 minutes long.- compositions to be posted to Soundcloud, as usual. And please add them to the Freesound Dares group in Soundcloud.- You must give attribution. Best way to do this is by listing the Freesound sample#.When listing your samples please list them in pairs showing the reason each sample was picked (e.g. quiet/loud 12345/12346; day/night 45678/85214, etc...)- DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 25 Sep 2012, 11pm (GMT).

Thank you for your entry! And welcome to the Dares!I really like your entry. A complex mix of different musical genres but done with style.Although it is not exactly faithfull to the technical definition of this dare, it is certainly inline with the spirit and the intention here: You have combined mostly apposing music styles and moods instead of pairing up opposite samples.

As you are new I will briefly explain what happens next. (although you may have gathered that if you have looked at previous dare threads)When the dare closes, if there are enough entries, we will run a vote.Although it is not mandatory, it is strongly encouraged that people comment on everyone else's entries. - Honest comments and crtique. I will setup a specific thread here for discussion OR you can post comments on the pieces at Soundcloud.Also encouraged to do a self-critique of your own work(if you feel like it), especially after you have listenened to what others had to say about it.

Again, no written about that, but we tend to do critiques/comments after teh close of submissions. - To avoid distracting those still working on their pieces.

That is it! Hope you had fun making your piece and to see you again in future dares.

I had a lot of fun working on it.I appreciate the quick feedback and am happy you like the piece.Thank you for filling me in on the protocol of the Dares.I'm not new to Freesound, but have been away for a couple years.When I thought to check on the site, it had got a complete makeover!It looks and works better than ever.

When I came across the Dare Forum I couldn't fight the inspiration to take a crack at it.I'm honored to have my work up for people to hear.I love hearing new sounds and this is the perfect place to find them.

I am having some trrouble with my music computer at the moment. - suspect it is a virus.I have other computers and means to access the internet, so I will be closingh out the dare on schedule and will be able to listen to all entries.

However, my music computer needs to undergo a bit of maintenance, so I will be unlikely to finish my entry on time. Oh well...

I spent way more time searching for these sounds than I did actually putting the piece together, and it shows. But on the other hand perhaps the DIY collage thing emphasizes the point...I was listening to the news while searching for my sounds and a distinctly political bent came into the piece: Fighting distorts everything so pray for peace.

Idea was to celebrate the athletes who take part in the Paralympics! As such, I wanted my entry to sound a bit like those songs that give the epic rush. Something like Final Countdown or Titanium, y'know. Not sure if I got the epic rush moments in there, but I thoroughly enjoyed making this one cuz I stepped out of my comfort zone a bit here. Melody is NOT my thing. I literally had to go online and check the affective moods of songs in certain keys (say chord in the key of Eb etc etc), and then I looked up a chart for the chords that were supposed to be part of that key. I think I chose the triumphant sounding key, (don't remember what it was maybe E flat or something).

The opposites used are:-bass drum / snare --> dull/sharp sound| 2086/ 29603-crowd sound/ single male sound --> many/one sound| 18365/ 149111-multiple typewriter strokes/ one keystroke on the computer --> many/one, and machine type sound (| there are two opposites here: one for the number of strokes, and second for the tool) | 9098/ 137-waterhorn/ airhorn --> air/water = elements through which sound have their identity and name | 23722/64476-pad (chorus)/ one piano note --> many/one sound, ethereal/ in-the-moment sounds | 11042/ 65720

How the sounds are used:-Bass drum - as a bass drum-Snare - as a snare drum, hi-hat for the second drum pattern, reverse snare-Crowd sound - appears past the middle half of the song-Single breath - (heavily processed) the bubble-like panned sound appearing towards the last part of the song (it appears really, really low, so you need to listen carefully. When the choir hits the hi note at the very end and the crowd is cheering, this bubble sound can be heard more clearly)-Typewriter - audible in the beginning of the song-Single computer keystroke - (used in different pitches) groove pattern that plays along with the typewriter sound-waterhorn - the arpeggiated synth (has more bass to it)-airhorn - appears towards the end of the song, has a similar melody to that of the waterhorn, but the arp pattern is different; it is that "epic" sorta mood I tried to achieve with this particular sound-pad - choir-like sound heard throughout; applied distortion to the original sample-piano - took one piano note and sampled it to stretch about 6 octaves. In the beginning, it plays just like a piano should, towards the middle, has FX applied to it, at the end becomes a piano again.

I actually had a little fun making this, and I hope you enjoyed it, too!